Where the Lonely Ones Roam
by dernier cri
Summary: A collection of moments between Draco and Pansy to tell their real story.


_I had to write something for this pairing because there's not enough Dransy fanfiction out there. This will be a three-shot, so look forward to more chapters!_

_- Val_

* * *

_August 8th, 1987_

Most would say that Malfoy Manor's cold, stone walls were highly intimidating and very unwelcoming to those who dared to approach it - those who knew its whereabouts, that is. To Draco Malfoy, however, those walls were the only thing he'd ever known, other than the professional quidditch games his father took him too; almost all of the only happiness he'd ever felt had come from inside of those walls. Any witch or wizard should feel honored to be invited into his home, he thought, and the Parkinsons felt very, very honored.

"It's nice to see you again, Narcissa," exclaimed Magnolia Parkinson as she embraced Narcissa Malfoy and kissed her one on each cheek. Both ladies genuinely smiled at each other, which was a bit of a rarity being who they were.

"It's been too long, Magnolia," said Narcissa as she returned her embrace. "Welcome to our home."

"Good afternoon, Alaster." Lucius Malfoy stuck his hand out to greet Magnolia's husband, who returned his handshake with a firm grip and a small grin.

"Who's this pretty little thing?" asked Narcissa with a curious smile at the little girl in the pink, frilly robes who didn't look any older than her own son.

"That's our little Pansy," smiled Magnolia as she looked adoringly at her daughter, patting her dark curls down as Pansy smiled shyly.

"She can't be much older than our Draco, can she, darling?" Lucius said to Narcissa, looking passively at Pansy. Narcissa nodded in response as she brushed his arm softly.

"Say, where is your son, Lucius?" asked Alaster loudly. "He can play with my daughter as the adults have dinner and discuss business."

"Right." Lucius replied absentmindedly. He quickly summoned a house elf to fetch Draco from his room and appeared not too long after.

"Hello, Father," Draco greeted politely as he entered the downstairs greeting hall. He caught his mother's eye quickly and smiled before turning to the two strangers before the entrance.

"This is Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson, Draco. They've just returned from their five year business relocation to Bulgaria and they've brought their daughter along with them. Why don't you two play together while the adults talk?" said Lucius in a way that Draco knew was less of a question and more of a command.

"Of course, Father," replied Draco, though he hadn't noticed that the Parkinson's had brought along their daughter. He only spotted the two adults - oh. A couple locks of dark hair peeked out from behind the mother's dress, soon followed by large, dark eyes and a pink, frilly dress.

"Stay out of trouble," smiled Narcissa as the adults were filing into the dining hall, leaving the two children to themselves.

Draco stared curiously at the girl in the pink, frilly robes. He had played with lots of other kids before - well, he'd played with other boy kids before: Theo Nott, Blaise Zabini, Greg Goyle, and Vincent Crabbe - but never had he ever played with a girl kid before. Were they the same as boys? He wasn't exactly sure.

"What's your name?" asked Draco; he was feeling rather curious. She seemed interesting, at least, since she'd been to Bulgaria and Norway. He'd never been allowed outside of England.

"I'm Pansy." The girl's dark appeared to shine softly as she stepped into the light. Pansy saw the boy's pale hair and naturally assumed that it was white, but that wasn't natural. She narrowed her eyes in curiosity for a split second before snapping her eyes wide open. It was rude to stare, she had always been taught by her mother. "And you're Draco Malfoy, according to Father."

"Yeah." Draco wasn't quite sure what to say. It had been a while since he last played with any other children, but he did not want to disappoint his father by upsetting the other child or by leaving her stranded in the greeting hall where there was absolutely nothing to do. "Want to see the library? We can find Bulgaria on the map because apparently you've been there but I don't know where those places are."

"Alright," replied Pansy with a small smile. She didn't play with a lot of other children either, but she quickly followed Draco down the corridors of the Manor, their footsteps fading from the greeting hall as they approached the library.

* * *

_September 1st, 1991_

"I can't believe that you almost made us miss the train, Daph," sighed Pansy, who sounded nothing short of annoyed.

"Well I had to wake Astoria to see me off!" exclaimed Daphne, referring to her sister who was a year younger than she. "She would have had my head if she didn't get to see the Hogwarts Express till Christmas!"

"Your sister would have lived," Pansy rolled her eyes. She had never had any siblings to worry about, though she wasn't sure if that was a blessing or not. Pansy was almost jealous of Daphne having Astoria to play with all the time. It must have been fun, she thought. "Oh look, almost all of the compartments are full because you made us arrive at so late! We're lucky the train didn't leave without us."

"I'm sorry, Pansy, I'm sorry!" cried Daphne as she reached for Pansy's arm and pouted. She hated when Pansy got mad at her. Pansy was the only friend she had who wasn't that ugly Millicent Bulstrode her parents made her play with sometimes. The trio of girls had known each other since they could walk. Apparently, their mothers had all been friends when they were in school. It wasn't long before Pansy came to notice that she was the more outspoken of the trio. Daphne was the adorable sweetheart with her golden hair and sparkling blue eyes, though she mustn't be underestimated; she adored making others feel bad when she didn't get her way. Unless that person was Pansy or Millicent. However, Millicent was more like the bulky, brute force girl. She was hardly nice, but Pansy and Daphne were her only friends, and everybody needed friends.

"Oh, shut it, Daph." Pansy rolled her eyes at her friend once more before continuing down the hall until she was almost at the back and saw a half-empty car that contained two boys: one with short, brunette hair and another with pale, almost white hair whom she recognized from a few years earlier, much to her relief. She certainly did not want to sit with a pair of strangers. "Let's go sit in this one, okay?"

"But that one has boys in it!" Daphne's eyes widened as Pansy grabbed her arm firmly and opened the compartment. Pansy knew from her mother's gossip that the Malfoy's and the Greengrass's were not exactly on the best of terms. According to Mrs. Malfoy, she hadn't even been invited to Marie Greengrass's wedding and, in turn, Marie hadn't been invited to a Malfoy tea party ever since. "Do you even know who they are? My mum said to not talk to strangers!"

"Draco," said Pansy as she blatantly ignored Daphne's question and smiled politely. He looked up quickly, appearing to be surprised to be recognized already. Draco recognized Pansy's dark hair and her darker eyes and she smiled at him. He was happy to recognize another friend on the train. She had not spoken to Draco for the better of three months now, but since the day they had met, they'd become fast friends. "Is it alright for me and my friend to sit here? All the others are full."

"Yeah, come in." Draco smiled at Pansy. He watched as Pansy and her friend entered the car and shut the door behind them. When Pansy looked back at him after seating herself, Draco immediately pointed to the boy next to him. "Pansy, this is Theo Nott. He's in our year too."

"Oh, hello," said Pansy to the other boy with a small, polite smile. She reached for his hand. He looked confused for a moment before grabbing her hand in return and shaking it. Girls usually didn't shake hands, according to Draco, or more accurately, his mother, unless that information was poorly out-dated.

"Is this the other friend you were telling me about?" asked Theo, eyeing Pansy curiously. The Nott family was a well-known Pureblood family that the Parkinson's didn't often associate with due to their constant traveling. Pansy watched Draco blush lightly at the question.

"Yeah, she's the one who's been to Bulgaria and...and where else again, Pansy?" Draco was rather excited to see if she had been anywhere new. He never got to travel and always found her stories interesting and exciting.

"I went to Russia, France, and just recently I went to Australia with Daphne and her family," Pansy exclaimed as she grabbed the girl next to her, who was shyly attempting to hide between her blonde locks while still looking at the two boys sitting in front of her.

"Daphne's the name then?" asked Theo with a smirk. Daphne nodded quickly in response before blushing deeply, but Draco wasn't too interested in Daphne. She hadn't been to nearly as many places as Pansy, he was sure.

"What was it like in Australia? And tell me about Russia again! I forgot," said Draco earnestly and excitedly. He held his hands together tightly in his lap as he anxiously awaited for her stories. Pansy could have laughed, really, but she told him and Theo and Daphne the tales of all of her travels until they had to get ready to get off the train.

* * *

_December 1st, 1992_

The school was buzzing with rumours since the near-death of the Muggleborn students and the crazily annoying Moaning Myrtle. Most people believed that the Heir of Slytherin was that stupid Harry Potter because he spoke Parseltongue once, but Pansy knew better than to believe such nonsense.

"He's a Half-blood, Daph, he can't be Slytherin's Heir. That's impossible!" exclaimed Pansy in the Slytherin common room and she lounged in the giant, emerald sofas before the fireplace and continued flipping through the latest edition of Witch Weekly.

"Yeah, but he's Harry Potter, Pans!" Daphne shouted, clutching her best friend's hands, causing Pansy to drop her magazine and roll her eyes and scoff. "He can speak Parseltongue!"

"Harry Potter's not that great, Greengrass," Draco Malfoy chided in as he entered the common room with Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who Pansy had nicknamed his "goonies." Even Blaise was beginning to call them that. Draco tossed his bag over the top of the long emerald and mahogany couch and fell into it's surprisingly soft cushions before he threw his feet up on the wooden table where most students did their homework. Crabbe and Goyle sat on both sides of him, their bulky figures making it seem as if the couch was swallowing him. He tossed a side-glance at Daphne and thinned his lips in a rather disapproving way. "You're just lucky the others aren't with us to overhear you saying such things."

Daphne dropped Pansy's hands and shuffled back towards the girl's dormitory, her face void of all emotion as Pansy had only seen after Daphne had gotten a scolding by her mother or got into a fight with her sister. Daphne was one of the more emotional people that Pansy knew. She always voiced her thoughts without really thinking them through.

"Is she always like that?" Draco asked Pansy as he watched Daphne's retreating back fade into the darkness of the stairwell that led to the girl's dormitories. "Praising Potter and all that?"

"No," Pansy answered quickly, casting a sidelong glance at the girl's dormitory stairway. "She's just a bit daft sometimes."

Draco was quiet for a while. Most people in the school didn't think that he had ever been the nicest boy, but Pansy didn't really mind. Most people did not think that she was the nicest girl ever. People were scared of most Slytherins in the first place. They weren't always like that though. Draco know that Pansy loved unicorns and sticking up for what she believed in, whereas Pansy knew that Draco cared more for his family than anything else in the world. Nobody ever saw these parts of their kind. The Slytherin kind.

"Father says that the Heir of Slytherin will take care of things," said Draco, dissolving the moment of silence.

"At least something good will finally happen to this school." Pansy glanced at the Draco, the two boys beside him fading into the background; they never said much.

* * *

_October 31st, 1993_

"I can't believe that we're going to be forced to sleep in the Great Hall with everyone from all the other houses." Tracey Davis complained, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes as she stared down at the sleeping bags that they were supposed to climb into that night.

"This is so primitive," Daphne agreed, a look of disgust rising onto her face as she lifted up her dark green sleeping bag pinched between her forefinger and thumb.

"Sirius Black didn't even try to get into any of the other dorms." Pansy pointed out. "I doubt he would be able to even find ours."

"At least we'll be together, ladies," said Theo Nott as he threw his arms around Daphne and Tracey's shoulders, winking at the latter. "We'll all be sleeping together. A lot could happen."

"Don't be vile, Theo." Pansy nearly laughed; she knew that Theo was joking. He knew that Pansy thought that the very idea of doing such an act at such a young age was disgusting, especially since they'd known some kids in their year who had already done it. Thankfully, it was nobody in Slytherin, or Pansy would have never been able to look at them again.

"Do you think that Dumbledore'd mind some of us going down to the kitchens for a little snack while everyone's preparing to sleep?" Draco's voice drifted from behind Blaise, both of whom just arrived in the Slytherin part of the Great Hall's floor.

"I'm sure he won't miss us," said Pansy, a smirk appearing on her lips.

"Come on then, Pansy, Blaise, and er, Nott, if you aren't too busy."

"I think I'll stay back and protect these ladies." Theo and Tracey were giggling while Daphne simply blushed; she was still a bit shy around boys.

Draco didn't offer more than a small chuckle before leading the way out of the Great Hall. McGonagall, Dumbledore, and Flitwick were all too preoccupied with discussing the issue about the mass murderer and all had their backs to the door; Lupin was calming down some first year Gryffindors, and Hagrid, the giant oaf, was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't difficult to leave the Great Hall. They were all very thankful to be out of the stuffy room. Mealtimes were okay because all of the students were only in there for an hour or so at a time, but having to spend hours in the same room with all of Hogwarts made Pansy feel trapped. She could only hope that she wouldn't be caught in the end of the Slytherin row, trapped between someone she knew and a Gryffindor.

It didn't take them long to get to the kitchen, and they hardly had to keep themselves quiet. Nobody was going to be out patrolling that night except for the teachers, most of which were either in the Great Hall getting everybody settled in or searching Gryffindor Tower. Draco tickled the green pear, which turned into a green door knob. The trio had learned how to enter the kitchens by merely asking the House Elves how to get more tasty little treats and they invited them into the kitchen back in their first year. They were greeted by House Elves and sat themselves at the table in the middle of the room, being offered food left and right.

"This is nice," Pansy said after a while, scooping up a piece of a pumpkin pasty as Blaise was being given a tour of the extensive freezer that held all of the ice cream, among other frozen treats.

"It's fun here, I suppose," Draco replied as he wolfed down some other tasty treat.

"No, I mean. Being here, with you," Pansy told him, but quickly added, "and Blaise. Our friendship is nice."

Draco had slowed his eating just a bit to look up at Pansy, who was apparently too busy staring at the wall beside her than to look at him. Earlier in the year, a hippogriff had cut his arm and Pansy had been in the hospital wing every day until he was better, trying to make sure that he was okay. He had to admit that for at least some of it, he had been faking just a little bit to keep her attention on him. Even if he wouldn't tell the others, he rather enjoyed Pansy's attention.

Draco had never been the kind of person that was forthcoming with his emotions or thoughts, but he'd seen the way that Pansy was growing up; her dark hair was long and glossy, her eyes were a dark green, her breasts - er, her personality was showing through more. She was becoming a woman, really, and he knew it. He'd also seen the way other boys were beginning to look at her, and he didn't want to miss his chance. "I like being here with you too, you know."

* * *

_December 18th, 1994_

"Merlin, help me," said Draco as he rubbed his hands together furiously, though it wasn't due to the snow that was covering Hogwart's courtyard. He combed his fingers through his hair nervously and was close to trying to smack himself in order to snap out of his nervous state. Malfoy's didn't get nervous. Earlier in the day, Draco overheard an older boy, Miles Bletchley, ask Pansy to the Yule Ball, only to be rejected saying that she was already going with someone, but he knew that was an excuse. However, that was only because he spent the entire morning cornering all of Pansy's friends and asking them if Pansy had already been asked to the stupid dance.

"You alright, mate?" Blaise asked, patting Draco on the back, a smirk appearing on his lips at his friend's clear distress.

"Wha- Yeah I'm fine." But Draco Malfoy was clearly not fine. He was rubbing his cheeks with his hands and taking long, deep breaths as he tried to calm himself. "Is she coming this way yet?"

About twenty minutes prior, Pansy told Daphne who told Tracey who told Blaise who told Draco that she was going to the owlery to send her mother a letter, and Draco was waiting anxiously at the bottom of the owlery stairs with Blaise by his side.

"She should be coming down soon," Blaise chuckled. He was clearly still amused. "I'll catch you later. You won't want me around when you ask her."

"Yeah, yeah." But Draco was hardly paying attention as Blaise retreated back to the Slytherin dormitories. He could only focus on the sound of footsteps on the stairs. Draco inhaled deeply before the sound of footsteps reached the bottom of the stairs and a voice he had not been expecting lashed out at him.

"What're you doing here, Malfoy?" Potter asked accusingly.

"That's none of your business, Potter," Draco snapped quickly, a sneer on his face. The nervous boy was gone now.

"There's nothing not fishy about lurking at the bottom of a stairway." Potter's voice was becoming more and more annoying, according to Draco. He was getting in the way of trying to remain calm for when Pansy returned.

"Go tell the world then," said Draco, annoyed. "I'm sure you'll find someone who cares."

Potter threw him one last skeptical look before exiting the owlery tower, though he did look back once to make sure that Draco was not trying to hex him on the way out. It certainly wouldn't have been the first time. Draco's lips were still curled into a sneer by the time Pansy reached the bottom.

"What're you doing here, Draco?" Pansy's soft voice asked, startling him slightly.

"I um." His mind had been racing just a moment ago, but now it was completely devoid of any thoughts, aside from knowing that he should be saying something just that moment.

"You what?" Pansy asked, sure that she missed something he'd just said.

"Yule Ball? You and me? Or something?" Draco spurted out, still not totally sure what he was saying at this point. It must have been enough, however, because Pansy's lips twisted into a smile; he began to blush.

"Yes, of course!" Pansy replied, not missing a beat. Before Draco knew what was happening, Pansy's arms were around his neck and his arms subconsciously threw themselves around her. Draco felt her soft lips on his and his heart was pounding rapidly in his chest.

She hadn't meant to kiss him in the first place, but it happened before she could stop herself. The pair had hugged each other numerous times before; they were very comfortable with each other, but they hadn't ever kissed before. His eyes fluttered shut after a moment, but Pansy's had been glued shut the whole time; she was nervous. She didn't know how he was going to react.

His body was humming with excitement and he soon found himself breathless. All too soon her lips left his and he opened his eyes, panting slightly. Draco was sure that his face was flushed, but he considered himself a very, very lucky boy.

* * *

_March 23rd, 1996_

Most of the other girls in her year were jealous of her, that she knew for a fact. Draco was handsome and brilliant; she was the luckiest girl in the world to be with him, even Daphne had to admit that. Daphne had outgrown her shyness of boys by now and was currently seeing Blaise while Tracey and Theo had been in an on-and-off relationship for the past year. It was nice to see that everybody in their little group was happy and okay, for now at least.

"Are you okay?" Pansy asked, approaching Draco, who was resting on one of the emerald-colored couches in front of the fireplace in the Slytherin Common Room. She dropped chin to rest atop his hair and caressed his cheek with her slender fingers.

"Of course," Draco replied. She knew that he was lying. The latest edition of the Quibbler had come out earlier that morning. Everybody had read it. Harry Potter's interview was in it. He had rattled off the names of every alleged Death Eater he had seen at the end of the Triwizard Tournament last year. Most people hadn't believed him. Then again, most people didn't want to believe him.

"He hasn't got any proof." Pansy wrapped her arms around Draco's neck and pecked his cheek before hopping over the back of the couch to sit beside him. She clutched his arm and rested her head in the groove of his neck. Draco responded only by lifting his arm to allow her to lean against him more comfortably. He had never been the kind of person who talked about his feelings openly, but Pansy was always able to understand what he was feeling, even if he never uttered a word.

"Tell me about Germany," he said after a while. He didn't look at her or hint at any of the emotions he was feeling, but Pansy knew that he just wanted to stop thinking about Harry Potter naming his father as a Death Eater. Draco had known, of course, but it was a bold move, putting their family name out there like that. The Malfoy's had a lot of influence in the wizarding world, and all his life he had been taught to honor their name and bring pride to it.

"I went to Lake Königssee," Pansy started, looking at Draco's profile: thin lips, a sharp nose, and light grey eyes that never looked away from the warm fire. "The lake was so clear I could see the bottom of it. Everything about it just seemed so clear, even the sound. I think it's the most beautiful place in the world. I think you would have loved it there."

Draco smiled a little then. There was no limit to what he would give for a little clarity on the subject that was all he could think about. He scooted closer to Pansy and rested his head on hers, sighing slightly.

"You'll have to take me there some day," said Draco.

"I will," Pansy replied, a broad smile finding its way to her lips. Draco looked down at her face and could not help but feel happier than he had been not so long ago.

"I love you," he said to her. If there was one thing that was keeping him sane, it was Pansy.

"I love you too."

* * *

_I love reviews._


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